Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to the bill today and to participate in this very important and serious debate. I am new to this chamber, like many of my colleagues, but I am not new to the notion of justice and fairness. I do not see much of that in

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I agree with my friend that that is a laudable objective, but the legislation misses the mark. The legislation, instead of offering a hand of compassion to refugees, says to them, “Welcome to Canada. Now we are going lock you up. We may or may not be back in 12 mont

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, it struck me in the course of preparing my remarks that when people come through the door of my constituency office in Charlottetown, they want to talk about jobs. They want to talk about the fact that the economic situation on Prince Edward Island and in Canada is s

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, the hon. member's reading of the bill is the same as mine. There are provisions within the bill which allow for the arrest of a ship, but irregular entrants to Canada are not defined solely on their mode of arrival. They are defined on the basis of the number. Two pe

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, today marks the second speech that I have given in the House. It has been a busy week. As some of the members may know, I am a new member of Parliament for the riding of Charlottetown, the birthplace of Confederation. I trust I will be allowed this opportunity to

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, I acknowledge that, yes, 40% of those who voted or roughly 25% of Canadians did support her party in the last election. I also acknowledge that there were significantly less who supported our party. However, I would point out that this absolutely flies in the face

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, the short answer to the question is, yes. It is most unfortunate that the bill has been presented in the manner that it has, putting together 110 pages and compiling 9 acts. If there were any room for movement, compromise, amendment or to have this bill severed u

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, I had hoped that I made that fairly clear in the course of my remarks. Lest there be any confusion, should the motion fail we will most certainly be voting against the bill.

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, here we go again, the language of division. This party and this member are not soft on crime. We are absolutely not backing criminals. I absolutely reject that suggestion and, quite frankly, it is offensive. We stand in favour of victims. We stand in favour of cri

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Madam Speaker, the evidence is irrefutable that in the United States this tough on crime legislation, the increasing of mandatory minimum sentences, does not work. It is extremely costly. It costs $108,000 per year to house an inmate in a federal institution. Is that caring for o

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, I was interested to hear the minister's comments about the relative merits and the attractiveness of Canadian federal prisons. I am not sure if the minister is aware, but there are many provincial institutions that are absolutely stretched to the max. I was interes

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, I do not think there is any denying the Statistics Canada information that shows that crime rates in this country are falling. Also, I do not think there is any denying that the tough on crime legislation in many American states has failed. Looking at those two, I w

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, as someone involved in law enforcement, the hon. member undoubtedly knows that the vast majority of conditional sentences are granted in cases that are less serious. Conditional sentences in more serious cases or for more serious offences are extremely rare. Given t

Safe Streets and Communities Act  Mr. Speaker, I realize the majority of the member's speech on the bill was on the subject of international transfer. However, my question is one of a domestic nature, given that the hon. member mentioned, at least a couple of times, that this was about protecting our most vulnera

Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act  Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to the member's presentation. I heard him say that there is a possible charter violation in this legislation. He made reference to the 2007 Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Charkaoui case where the 120 day mandatory detention was struck dow